Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-02-17
RAPID TRANSIT.
The Proposed Underground Railroad System
in Philadelphia.

Inc proposed Underground railroad system
in Philadelphia.
New York Tribune
The underground railroad ordinance
which has been in the hands of subcom.
mttee of city councils committee on
railroads since Oct 8, will be considered
by the general committee in few days
and an effort will be made to have the
bill passed.
The line as laid out by John j. Deery,
chief engineer and architect of the pro-
posed road, is twenty-six miles long, ex-
tending as far north as Chelten Hills,
west to sixty-third street, and east to the
Delaware river at Market street. The
main line of the system will extend across
Market and Broad streets, with branches
on Ridge avenue, from Broad to Dia-
mOnd; on Lancaster avenue, from Market
to fifty second and Elm, and on Diamond
from Broad to Third, and down Third to
Pollock. 'The motive power" said Mr..
Deery recently, ''will be electricity, and
each car in the train will seat thirty
eight persons, the doors being on the
side. t The rate of speed is 30 be thirty
miles an hour, stations to be three to the
mile In residence portions of the city and
four to the mile in business portions.
This rate will enable trains to ccom-
plish twenty miles an hour, allowing the
difference for stops, which is almost
double the speed Of elevated roads in
New York. The tracks will be double,
and there will be no switching between
stations, which are to be enclosed. The
building in each case is entered from the
street, and descent is made immediate
ly to the platform beneath the pave
ment. Ventilation is fully provided for
and In addition to the moving of trains,
the subway is designed for the housing
of all classes of pipes and wires.
"Rapid transit by elevated roads In
Philadelphia" said Mr.. Deery, 4" is SEN
timent that can not be put into practice
except on the outskirts, since the real
and consequential damages which must
be added to their cost will make it i'm
possible for capital to seek such invest
ments. In New York the law did not so
guard the rights of individuals and prop
erty, and that, as we'll as the great width
of the clty's main streets, allowed the in
PRODUCTION of the system. No other city
in the world has an elevated road for the
local transportation of its citizens. Eff
forts have been made in most of the large
cities of Europe and America to build
elevated oIads, but without avail. The
advantages of the subway system have
been appreciated and recognized, for
private companies have obtained the con-
sent of local authorities to build such
roads in London, Paris and Vienna, while
in Chicago and New York other COM
panies stand ready to erect extensive sys-
TENS of the same character.
philadelphia has 129 square miles of
territory with its limits, while but eighteen
and half square miles are built upon.
To extend the city by keeping the popu-
lation within its limits, and not, as at
present, building up the outlying towns
and boroughs, additional facilities for
rapid transit are needed, so that the
question of time enters largely into the
argument. Any city whose annual growth
is less than per cent. of population la
bors under disadvantage. In 1870 New
York had only q per cent. increase, but
since the introduction of rapid transit it
has regained the old per cent rate of
increase, and still maintains it. Phila
delphia has gradually fallen in its ratio of
increase to between q and 2 per cent. SO
that in 1880, when the population should
have between 10000, 900, it was only 847,-
600. While Philadelphia has been falling
away its suburban towns have been rapid
ly growing. Camden, from 1870 to 1880,
increased $50 per cent, while Philadel
phia increased only 25 per cent, and the
outlying villages and towns within the
radius of. thirty minutes travel have Sc
cured the population which should have
been housed here. With the present rate
of increase in Chicago it is calculated
that early In 1900 that city will be the
second in the union in point of popula
ton"